Diarmaid Ferriter: Fianna Fáil identity crisis driven by pretenders Sinn Féin

The growing agitation within Fianna Fáil for earnest inquiry into the party’s woes raises the question of what it represents almost a century after its creation on the back of the upheavals of the early 1920s.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin perhaps had time to ponder that last week when he visited Cork Public Museum to see its exhibition, Suffering the Most, to mark the centenary of the murder of lord mayor of Cork Tomás Mac Curtain in March 1920 and the hunger strike and death of his successor Terence MacSwiney in October that year, events that generated national and international attention and emotion during the War of Independence.

As is customary for politicians viewing these worthy commemorative efforts, the Taoiseach stressed the importance of education and new perspectives on the revolutionary generation and the events that led to the creation of this State. He also sought to weave in our current predicament: in 1920, “just as now, the city and country was sorely tested, but demonstrated remarkable courage, solidarity and dignity”.

At another time of crisis, the late Brian Lenihan jnr sought to do something similar when as minister for finance in 2010 dealing with the financial crash, he became the first Fianna Fáil politician to address the annual gathering at Béal na mBláth to commemorate the death of Michael Collins in 1922. He took solace, he said, in studying what faced Collins during his time as finance minister from 1919 to 1922. “Given the scale of challenges I have to meet, I was heartened by the scale of the challenges he had to meet.”

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Room for two republican parties?

Sites of remembrance can be useful touchstones, it seems, even if the historical parallels they prompt are too contrived. They can also, as Lenihan suggested a decade ago, contribute to the idea of reconciliation between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, a theme Martin similarly emphasised when he became Taoiseach. But the retreat to history will generate little solace for Fianna Fáil given the current state of the party and the sense that the end of Civil War politics seems to be benefiting Fine Gael far more.

As Fianna Fáil leader, Martin has adopted the habit of going for the Sinn Féin jugular, to little effect. It is clear his dislike of the party is visceral and over the years his contempt has been summed up in his assertion: “How dare they claim to own Irish republicanism!” Sticking to this mantra, regardless of how deep he feels it or how legitimate his denunciation is will hardly benefit his own party.

In many respects Sinn Féin is successfully replicating what Fianna Fáil did in the 1930s

To invert the famous declaration of MacSwiney, perhaps he needs to endure rather than inflict the most when it comes to Sinn Féin as to do the reverse will probably continue to backfire. The challenge for Martin and his party, and it is an enormous one, is to find a 21st-century version of the founding aims of the party that included not just Irish unity but “to make the resources and wealth of Ireland subservient to the needs and welfare of Ireland”.

In many respects Sinn Féin is successfully replicating what Fianna Fáil did in the 1930s through attention to grassroots organisation, the claim to champion those of little or no property, the demand for aggressive State intervention for welfare purposes and a persistent rhetoric about ending partition.

Martin has presented himself as part of what he describes as “the Lemass, Donagh O’Malley tradition . . . we’re back to our roots, we’re a community party that’s in touch with the people”. That will be rubbished by Sinn Féin, which claims that mantle now, which may suggest the option left for Fianna Fáil, while it still has that option, is to demonstrate it actually is capable of good governance during difficult times. Sorting out differences internally and remembering that loyalty to its leader has been one of its binding elements in the past might also help.

Soldiers of an uncertain destiny

The party’s West Galway TD Éamon O’Cuív presents himself as guardian of the party’s historic soul but he is hardly a beacon for its future. In relying on its older, conservative base of supporters and with just five female TDs Fianna Fáil is, to mirror a common jocular complaint of those aged over 70, like a census return: broken down by age, sex and religion.

In relation to its future identity, Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan has stumped for the description of it as a “centre-left national party” that would prioritise unity, public housing, welfare of the vulnerable, the environment and “reward hard work and business”.

Part of the logic it seems, is for Fianna Fáil to be the buffer that will prevent Irish politics becoming polarised between Sinn Féin and Fine Gael. Perhaps reviving a damaged currency, social partnership, discarded and often derided after the financial crash, might help Fianna Fáil’s identity crisis, especially given the scale of the damage being inflicted by the current pandemic.